Ch 13: Opening a Survival School Before the Zombie Outbreak

More than two thousand students—Fu Qing had long expected that not all of them would obediently stay. By nine o’clock that evening, a total of nine students had come, one after another, to complete withdrawal procedures.

A few others had even reached the doorway, hesitated again and again, and then turned back.

In the end, subtracting the 21 who were expelled and the 9 who withdrew, exactly 2,370 students remained.

At precisely nine that night, the wristbands of the remaining students vibrated in unison, and the course page refreshed.

In addition to the three compulsory courses, the top 98 students—those who had killed at least one zombie during the simulation exercise—were uniformly assigned to Hao Zhenye’s Advanced Practical Combat course.

The top 1,347 students—those who had survived until the end of the simulation without dying—were granted priority in course selection and could choose one of the two electives.

Crop Cultivation had 500 spots total, first come, first served. Everyone else would have to attend Practical Combat.

As soon as the notice was released, the forum exploded again.

…

Amid the uproar, the new semester began.

*

The next day happened to be a Monday. At six in the morning, as the sun rose, the wristbands dutifully issued another reminder.

【A new day has begun! Don’t forget to clock in your run!】

【Today’s target remaining: 5 km】

Roars erupted simultaneously from countless dorm rooms: “What kind of university starts the day at six in the morning?!”

“Whoever wants to go can go. I’m sleeping.”

In that moment, fear of the principal was defeated by the demon of sleep.

Having been through it herself, Fu Qing had long anticipated that most of them would struggle to get up. The system calmly added:

【During the semester, run check-in completion rates will be tallied. The top 30% of students will receive 5 points as a reward; the bottom 30% will have 5 points deducted as punishment. At the end of the semester, if the campus-wide run check-in rate exceeds 98%, all students will receive 5 bonus points. Please persevere and strive for excellence.】

“What exactly are these points for?” Song Rushuang asked, brushing her teeth while looking at her wristband.

Shen Qingqing shook her head and said cautiously, “Since we’ve chosen to stay, we should just try our best to complete the tasks.”

“Can’t I just not go?” Zhang Han had been forcibly dragged out of bed and swayed sleepily, making one last attempt to resist.

Without hesitation, Shen Qingqing said, “No.”

Zhang Han: “…”

The two overachievers finished washing up and hauled the droopy Zhang Han toward the track.

Five kilometers was not long for those accustomed to running. But for students who had indulged themselves all summer and hadn’t exercised in ages, it was pure torment.

At a glance, the morning track was full of students shuffling along half-dead. Even the bright sunrise failed to dispel the lifeless aura clinging to them. The scene resembled zombies parading through the streets.

The moment they finished the five kilometers, the wristband displayed that check-in was complete.

However, unlike the simulation, the running check-in did not display rankings in real time.

“The principal is ruthless—she’s perfectly manipulating student psychology,” Zhang Han clicked her tongue. “We can only see our own attendance rate but not the school-wide ranking. So the only option is to keep completing daily check-ins to avoid falling into the bottom 30%. I feel like a blindfolded donkey grinding a mill.”

Song Rushuang said, “But they still haven’t said what the points are for. I have a bad feeling…”

She had assumed the points were related to the yet-unannounced course selection feature. But when the schedule refreshed, she was directly assigned to Advanced Practical Combat without any choice at all.

She could only watch resentfully as Zhang Han, with the lightning-fast reflexes she had trained from snatching concert tickets, secured a slot in the farming course. Song Rushuang had no idea what she had fought zombies so hard for.

Advanced Practical Combat looked hardcore. Compared to it, Hoarding Studies and Crop Cultivation clearly seemed like easy filler courses.

Fortunately, Shen Qingqing had chosen the combat course to accompany her, which gave Song Rushuang some comfort.

Still, she couldn’t figure out—if the points had nothing to do with course selection, what were they actually for?

*

Morning exercise ended. Shower. Breakfast. Then off to classrooms.

Only now did Fangzhou University’s first official day truly begin.

8:00 AM, Zombie Classification and Trait Studies.

The young new teacher on stage was as nervous as the students. “H-hello everyone. My name is Zhao Yunxiao. I’ll be introducing the habits of different zombie types.”

After speaking, he accidentally pressed some button. The ceiling lights lit up—it was a 3D projector.

A hyper-realistic zombie projection appeared among the students, baring its teeth and claws. Rotting flesh peeled off its face, dissolving into illusory dust. The surrounding students leapt away instantly.

Centered on the zombie, a perfectly clean three-meter radius circle formed.

“Don’t be afraid. This is just a basic zombie. Its movement speed is very slow, about the same as the elderly men strolling downstairs in your neighborhood…”

“If you look closely, it’s not that scary, right?”

The students were on the verge of tears. They absolutely could not see that.

And when you say it’s not scary, could you at least lift your head first, Professor Zhao?

Try making eye contact with it!

Zhao Yunxiao’s gaze darted away. He nervously pushed up his glasses. “Alright, please return to your seats and take notes. Basic zombies have low defense. As long as you destroy the brain, they can be killed. You can attack through weak points like the ear canal or eyes. Note this—important exam content. It’s worth at least three points.”

The moment students caught the keyword “exam content,” they jolted upright. Reflexively, they pulled out notebooks and laptops. The classroom filled with the rustling of pages and keyboard tapping.

The projected zombie waved its claws in confusion, seemingly unable to understand why it had suddenly become irrelevant.

On stage, Zhao Yunxiao quietly let out a sigh of relief.

Using the instinct of exam-focused education to defeat the instinctive fear of zombies—brilliant.

…

10:10 AM, Advanced Practical Combat (Elective).

“The main content of this course is learning how to kill zombies.”

“At the beginning, I have no other requirements. You only need to fight a zombie 1v1 in an open area and achieve a no-injury kill. But later, you’ll face darkness, confined spaces, even forest terrain—gradually increasing adaptability.”

Hao Zhenye had earned his experience through seas of corpses and blood. Just standing in front of the students, his powerful presence made their hearts tighten.

His gaze was sharp as a blade. Any student it swept across instinctively straightened, breaking into cold sweat.

With his rugged face, long scar, and shining bald head, he looked like someone freshly released from prison.

Students who had chosen this course felt bitter. They had thought the principal was terrifying, but compared to Teacher Hao, the principal seemed downright pleasant—at least she was easy on the eyes.

Hao. “Good” teacher. The name felt like a cruel joke.

Someone who has killed carries a different aura.

Like a wolf child raised in life-and-death struggles in the jungle, suddenly brought into civilization—every glance and movement radiates lethal tension.

Hao Zhenye looked at the students as though he were a forest wolf surveying a flock of soft, bleating lambs.

He snorted.

“As for the final exam, I can tell you now.”

“You will be placed alone inside a complex, enclosed building filled with obstacles and must contend with five zombies.”

“Kill all five and escape within one hour to pass. Anyone who fails must retake the exam until they pass. Fail three times, lose 10 points, and retake the course next semester. Understood?”

The stunned lambs: “…”

What kind of sadistic course is this?!

Is it too late to withdraw???

…

14:00 PM, University Physical Education.

After being brutalized all morning, the students ate lunch in a daze and returned to their dorms for a nap. Having finally recovered some energy, they returned to the track—only to once again find themselves staring at Teacher Hao.

Students: “…”

Mom!!! Does this school not have any other teachers?!

Those from Advanced Combat were still sore. Turning around, they saw that students from the farming class looked equally miserable.

Even paler than they were.

“Isn’t Crop Cultivation supposed to be an easy class? I heard the teacher is a white-haired grandma. Why do you all look like that?” someone whispered.

The student asked gave an unfathomable smile. “Oh, nothing. Just plowed fields for two straight hours without rest. My hands were shaking at lunch from holding chopsticks. Really nothing.”

“The class is pretty easy. Just need to grow potatoes yielding 8,000 jin per mu by the final exam. Otherwise the whole class fails. I mean, 5,000 per mu is already high yield, but honestly, 8,000 isn’t that unreasonable…”

The combat students: “…”

Help! Some people here have lost their minds!

Scrambling for comfort, someone said, “Look on the bright side. At least this class might be a little relaxing. My cousin is a year ahead. Their P.E. was just jogging, playing ball, maybe choosing tai chi, aerobics, jump rope…”

Before he could finish, Hao Zhenye spoke.

“For this P.E. class, divide into two groups. 1v1 pursuit drills. First hour, Group A chases Group B. Each successful capture gives A one point; each successful escape gives B one point. Second hour, switch roles.”

“No area restrictions. You may move anywhere on campus except dormitories. If both participants are the same gender, dormitories are allowed.”

“Final exam rankings based on total points. Top 30% receive point rewards. Bottom 30% receive deductions.”

“Wristbands will monitor activity. Staying still for more than one minute counts as a violation. Three violations end your session automatically and deduct 5 points. If distance exceeds 100 meters, the chasing party receives directional hints. Beyond 300 meters, exact location is revealed. That’s all.”

Students: “…”

Who just said we could pick aerobics?

After finishing, Hao Zhenye tapped his white wristband.

Soon everyone received notifications.

【Random pairing in progress…】

【You have been assigned to: Group A/B No. xx】

【Your opponent is: Group B/A No. xx】

They quickly realized assignments were completely random. Some petite girls were placed in Group B, chased by towering six-foot-plus boys from Group A.

Standing together, the girl looked swallowed by a mountain’s shadow.

She went numb. “I feel like I won’t even make it ten meters before I’m caught…”

Even the boy chasing her looked uneasy.

Just as he was about to say something, Hao Zhenye passed by expressionlessly. “Zombies won’t go easy on you.”

Both of them stiffened at once, and the words the boy had been about to say were swallowed back down.

During the team-forming process, everyone quickly realized the point of scrambling the numbers.

If the same two people were fixed to chase each other across both halves of class, they could simply go easy on each other. As long as they kept moving, the wristbands would not judge it as a violation. And no one ever said walking did not count as moving.

But with different opponents in the first and second halves, nobody could “give water.”

Very few people knew that “tag” has an official international competition. It is called World Chase Tag: both sides pursue and evade in a small obstacle-filled arena, and by the rules, if you are not touched within twenty seconds, the evader wins.

This P.E. pursuit match used similar rules, except the escape arena expanded from a 12m by 12m square to an entire 600-mu campus, and the chase time stretched from twenty seconds to a full hour.

Everyone could already picture the kind of painful hell waiting ahead.

International rules also made something clear. If you ignored differences in athletic ability, the longer the time, the greater the advantage for the chaser. In international matches, surviving twenty seconds is a win. In P.E., you had to survive a whole hour.

One step too slow, one tiny mistake, and you could lose.

Not to mention the sadistic rule that revealed hiding places. Winning an evasion round was practically impossible.

In other words, if you wanted more points, you had to go all-out during the round where you were responsible for catching.

The students who understood this were utterly shaken.

Had the teachers at this school all taken remedial courses in the psychology of student laziness? Otherwise how could they predict their prediction?

Hao Zhenye swept his gaze around. From their expressions, he could guess what they were thinking, and he let out a faint, contemptuous snort.

That principal looked young and unreliable, but she really did have a knack for reading students.

This morning, when he had submitted his lesson plan for her to review, Fu Qing had said nothing. She had only circled the team-pairing section, changing his original setup, where the same pair would swap offense and defense across both halves, into swapping roles while also swapping opponents.

As if she had already known they would try every trick to slack off.

Hao Zhenye had been away from school for too many years. How would he know Fu Qing was this practiced? Before the disaster, she too had been a university student who spent every day scheming how to skip class.

He had plenty of experience getting rained on, so he could tear other people’s umbrellas to shreds with perfect accuracy.

Hao Zhenye blew his whistle. “Pull apart by a hundred meters. Prepare for assessment!”

…

16:10 PM, Introduction to Hoarding Studies.

After a full day of being ground down into something barely human, the students finally reached this class and collectively perked up.

Crop Cultivation had been a miscalculation. They had never imagined they would actually have to go into the fields themselves. But this one had to be a genuine easy class, right?

Hoarding Studies. It was just telling you how to buy things, shelf lives for different supplies, that kind of stuff. It sounded simple.

Surely they would not have to personally go to a warehouse and sort inventory and place orders…

Right?

After a day of torment, the students had developed Fangzhou PTSD and suddenly were not so sure anymore.

Even when the teacher walked in, they did not relax their guard.

If even a silver-haired grandma in her seventies could make them suffer like dogs, then even if the person entering was Bai Tang, wearing a decorated ita-bag packed with badges, a blunt-cut fringe with a flashy blue-purple undercut dye by her ear, and beneath her sun-protective jacket a T-shirt that faintly showed Hatsune Miku’s skirt flipping up on one side… they still would not lightly believe she was a harmless shut-in otaku!

Bai Tang walked up to the podium under everyone’s wary stares, her backpack thumping on her shoulders.

She looked over the room, smiled with curved eyes, and flashed a row of white teeth. Her first sentence was, “Don’t worry, there’s no physical labor in this class at all. It’s all mental labor.”

The room froze for a second, as if they had heard heavenly music. They almost cried from joy.

None of them noticed the slyness tucked into the corners of Bai Tang’s smiling eyes.

She cleared her throat. “Alright. Now everyone, take out your phones and download the Lüjiang app. The content of our first class is appreciation of the top 20 hoarding novels on Lüjiang.”

The students, halfway through their happiness: “?”

What app? Appreciation of what novels?

Bai Tang sounded almost regretful as she talked. “X-site and Y-site hoarding novels are pretty good too, but they’re not clean enough. I submitted the reading list to the principal for approval this morning and got rejected. She said it’s not suitable to bring into a university classroom. What a pity.”

Students: “…”

No, actually, it’s not that much of a pity…

They were still stuck in the state of “listen to this, is our class even serious,” when Bai Tang had already snapped fully into teaching mode.

“Alright, now open the first text, Unemployed Me: Lying Flat With My Bestie in the Rainstorm Apocalypse.”

Students: “…”

With numb faces, they opened the e-book.

…

When class ended, Bai Tang turned off her phone screen with satisfaction, shut down the projector, and before leaving, reminded them, “I’ll upload the homework to the wristband backend. Finish it on time. Participation is 40% for this class, split evenly between homework and attendance. If you fail, points will be deducted.”

A few scattered “Okay” responses rose from the room.

The class content was bizarre, sure, but it was just reading novels. Who could not do that? It was not like solving math problems. Nobody took the homework seriously.

Even as she walked into the cafeteria, Song Rushuang’s head was still stuffed with the story: “Outside, wind and rain battered the world, while the reborn heroine and her bestie ate hotpot in a safehouse.”

Dip beef. Dip tripe. Dip duck intestines. Dip fatty lamb. Dip…

She sighed deeply. “After Zombie Studies, my head was full of intestines and guts. How come after Hoarding Studies, my head is still full of intestines and guts?”

“Look on the bright side, at least this doesn’t ruin your appetite.” Shen Qingqing patted her stomach. “It made me hungry.”

Zhang Han paused mid-bite, suddenly suspicious. “Don’t tell me the principal scheduled Hoarding Studies as the last class of the day for this reason. To make us eat more. Too evil. If this keeps up, I’m going to gain twenty jin in a year!”

“You’re overthinking it. With this exercise load every day, it’s impossible to get fat,” Song Rushuang said.

Zhang Han relaxed, lifted a chopstickful of glossy braised pork, rich with soy sauce. “I seriously think Teacher Bai slipped in her own agenda. Novel heroines have storage spaces, but we don’t. Lots of stuff you can’t store, you can’t even buy.”

“But a safehouse is still something to dream about.” Song Rushuang drifted a little. “If the apocalypse comes, I’m less worried about myself than my parents. If I had a space like that, I could bring them in, stock up on easy-to-store supplies, and keep the whole family together. Even if we ate worse, it wouldn’t matter. At least we could be at peace.”

At the mention of family, all three of them slowed down, a trace of gloom settling between their brows.

Song Rushuang absentmindedly picked at grains of rice at the bottom of her plate. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a familiar figure walking past and could not help turning her head.

It was the principal.

*

Fangzhou University was in a remote location and delivery was nearly impossible to order. Fortunately, when the system built the cafeteria, it preserved a shred of humanity and built it well.

The dishes were varied, nutritionally balanced, and clean. Even though it was robots doing the cooking, it tasted good, and it eliminated the possibility of anyone “adding ingredients” to the food.

Once Fu Qing realized this, she started eating most of her meals in the cafeteria.

The dorm wiring was new, and the system could detect fire hazards immediately. Fangzhou dorms had no appliance restrictions. Students could cook simple dishes in their rooms. But after a full day of classes, most people clearly had no desire to cook and chose the cafeteria instead.

And everyone was eating a lot more than before.

At this rate, in less than a year, the students’ physical condition would change dramatically.

The cafeteria was packed, yet wherever Fu Qing walked, it was as if a vacuum formed. The students stared at their plates, eyes on noses, noses on hearts, nearly burning holes through the shredded pork and green peppers at the bottom of their trays, refusing to look at the principal.

The twenty-one expelled students had deliberately acted where no one was around, and the principal still found them and singled them out. Who knew how many eyes she really had?

In a corner of the cafeteria, Bai Tang waved without a care. “Boss!”

Fu Qing: “…When did I become the boss?”

Complaints aside, she still sat down beside Bai Tang.

Bai Tang grinned. “It’s cooler this way.”

Next to her sat Granny Liu, a little hard of hearing. One old, one young, each chatting their own topic, yet somehow perfectly harmonious. One said Hatsune Miku had just debuted a new stage. The other said, So how did you know I was planning to plant some garlic scapes in the little flower bed downstairs? Fu Qing listened until she felt drunk.

She refused to join the conversation and chose to bury her head in her food.

At some point, Bai Tang stopped talking and looked at Fu Qing. “Principal, when are you planning to tell the students what points are actually for?”

Fu Qing’s chewing paused. “…Didn’t I say it?”

Bai Tang looked shocked. “? I thought you were hiding it on purpose to see how they’d react first!”

Fu Qing had genuinely forgotten.

From yesterday to today, she had been processing withdrawals, briefing teachers on the basics and the reward-punishment system, and reviewing course materials. She had completely shoved “announcing the purpose of points” out of her mind.

With a meat skewer between her teeth, she casually tapped twice in midair.

Bai Tang glanced at Fu Qing’s wrist. Unlike them, she wore no wristband.

The principal really did have a lot of secrets.

But as long as there were games to play and comics and novels to read, who would care about someone else’s little secrets?

Bai Tang swayed her head, pleased with herself. The tuft of hair she had not properly smoothed down stuck up like an antenna, trembling twice in the air as she lowered her head to drink her porridge.

*

As Fu Qing closed the system page and picked up her skewer again, an edited push notification went out.

【Wristband content update: “On the Function of Points”】

For a moment, the sounds of eating in the cafeteria paused.

【“Points” are an internal metric used by Fangzhou University to measure student performance.

Points can be obtained through multiple channels, such as classroom performance, completing homework, midterm and final assessments, as well as various on-campus activities conducted periodically, including simulation drills. All may award points.

When the one-year teaching term ends and the virus outbreak occurs, the Fangzhou University campus will be fully remodeled into a human shelter, and lodging quotas will be reserved for all faculty and students.

Due to space constraints and security considerations, the shelter will not accept outside evacuees for a certain period of time. At that time, points held by registered students may be used to exchange for early occupancy quotas. The specific exchange ratio will be announced after campus remodeling is completed.

Note: Course completion quality is directly linked to the shelter’s capacity. All students are urged to study diligently and strive to expand the quota.

— Office of the Principal, Fangzhou University】

“Clang.” Someone’s soup spoon fell, splashing rice broth everywhere.

That student did not even care about the skin turning red from the heat. They read the notice again.

“So the points we earn at school are used to exchange shelter slots…”

No one had expected points to be used for this.

Those who stayed, even if they had not fully accepted the apocalypse as certain, still believed it sixty to seventy percent. With life and death at stake, they read every word carefully.

Students had lodging slots, but parents did not. When the crisis truly came, most people would not be able to abandon parents and loved ones and hide alone in a safe shelter.

This newly introduced point exchange system solved that problem perfectly.

As long as they worked hard enough this year, it was entirely possible to bring the whole family in.

And if the principal already knew why shelters collapsed in the future, then when she rebuilt this one, she would certainly do everything possible to avoid repeating the same mistakes. When the time came, would there be any safer place in the world than this?

Moreover, according to the notice, the school would be remodeled at the same time the virus erupted. It was almost guaranteed this would become the first shelter in the country, perhaps the world.

They could even use the early outbreak period, before everything completely spiraled, to move parents into the shelter and minimize the risk of infected people mixing in.

Fangzhou University’s admission score cutoff was not low. The students were quick. Without any prompting, a single notice was enough for them to spin out countless implications, eyes growing brighter and brighter.

The 1111 girls’ dorm trio, who had been panicking a moment ago about what to do with their parents, were stunned with joy. “Did the principal eavesdrop on us?”

“Who would’ve thought a safehouse existed in real life…”

Of course, not everyone was happy.

“Only the top 30% in each class get bonus points. Doesn’t that mean 70% are guaranteed to get nothing?”

“I suspect by the end of the semester I’ll be in the negative twenty range… What if my points go negative? Will the principal revoke my lodging rights and tell me to pack up and get out so I don’t embarrass the school?”

Someone asked with chattering teeth, trembling.

“Be optimistic. There’s also the campus run. If you can’t do anything else, don’t lose the five points for hitting 98% check-in.”

Who would have thought that the five-kilometer campus run, which had felt like a nightmare that morning, would, after a single day, transform into the simplest task of all?

Students who had slept in and failed to check in immediately found their food tasteless. They ate mechanically, cleared their trays, and hurried toward the track on aching legs, limping as they went.

The sight of their injured-yet-unbending determination filled those who had checked in early with deep relief.

Others, more theory-minded, were still dissecting the notice word by word.

“‘Course completion quality is linked to capacity.’ What does that line mean?”

“Does it mean if we all get A’s, the shelter can take more people?” someone started doing reading comprehension. “But how are those related?”

A girl across from them had a flash of insight. “I get it. Like the farming class, the final requirement is 8,000 jin of potatoes per mu. If we exceed it and grow 10,000 per mu, that’s an extra 2,000 jin of food.”

“The campus is huge. If it opened its doors, it could fit a lot of people, but it can’t guarantee food supply.”

“So what decides the upper limit is really the stock and production of consumables like food, water, and energy, plus the campus’s defensive strength. Letting in more people means needing more security. And if we learn combat well enough to fight zombies, one of us could do the work of two. That also increases capacity.”

Her dormmate’s eyes widened. “So that’s why.”

By that logic, their studying could indirectly benefit their parents too?

Everyone felt as if they had been handed a giant baited hook they could not refuse.

Looking back at those courses, they suddenly did not feel so resistant anymore.

“In the future shelter, at least two thousand residents will be students. Even just for group harmony, I think the principal would prioritize accepting students’ parents first.” The girl kept laying out her reasoning. “She said she’ll announce the exchange ratio after the remodeling is complete. That’s probably because she needs to calculate the exact capacity.”

“As long as our grades are strong and the total capacity increases, the final exchange ratio might drop too. Then we can use fewer points to exchange more slots. Even if you can’t make top 30% and you have fewer points, you don’t need to panic.”

Her thinking was crisp and convincing. Without noticing, several people gathered around, nodding as they listened.

As Fu Qing passed by, she happened to catch the girl’s words and looked at her with mild surprise.

When she saw the student panel hovering above the girl’s head, she relaxed.

【Su Huaijin】

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Current points: 7

School rank: 10/2470

With the system bound to her, Fu Qing moved through campus like someone wearing a VR headset in a game. Every teacher and student she passed was like an NPC. If she tapped the small, inconspicuous telescope icon above their head, their personal profile would appear.

Su Huaijin. Fu Qing had already noticed the name last night when she organized the student roster.

The top liberal-arts scorer in a central province this year, and two years younger than average. She must have skipped grades to enter this cohort.

How the system had slipped a talent like this past the eyes of university admissions offices and tricked her into Fangzhou, who knew.

The valedictorian’s guess was not wrong. To reassure the students, Fu Qing had originally planned to provide everyone with one to two shelter occupancy slots.

But after thinking it through, she changed it to the current system of exchanging with points.

Under these rules, everyone at Fangzhou was both a competitor and a stakeholder.

It ensured students would work for points and participate actively in class, while also ensuring that even if they fell behind and could not reach the top of their class, they would not give up. As long as overall performance was strong, they could still benefit from a lower exchange cost and use fewer points to trade for their parents’ slots.

Resources given freely are never cherished. Rewards earned through effort are what people value.

However, no matter how smart Su Huaijin was, she still missed one thing because she lacked information.

Yes, strong performance could “directly” increase capacity.

But last night, after Fu Qing completed the task of planning the curriculum, her task list refreshed with a new mission.

【Main Quest: “Ability Test · Phase One”】

【Description: After a period of diligent study and training, the students’ level should improve significantly. Use an ability test to check their progress!】

【Requirement: Within 30 days of the start of term, at least 800 students must reach a comprehensive evaluation of Grade B. (Incomplete)】

【Reward: Shelter Module*1】

If she tapped the grey module icon in the reward column, she could see the detailed description.

【Item Name: Shelter Module】

【Description: Can be placed on any level surface, or stacked together with buildings. Contains 100 compartments, each with beds and washing facilities.】

By Fu Qing’s estimate, each compartment was about the size of a slightly smaller student dorm. In an emergency, since you would not need desks like in the dorms, you could cram in four bunk beds and sleep eight people.

Of course, that was only in an emergency.

You could live like that for a short time, but over the long term it was easy for psychological problems to develop.

Fighting the apocalypse was a war of endurance. Anyone who had played survival games knew that mental health was often a key factor in how long a community could keep going, so Fu Qing had to factor it in.

If you calculated one compartment per family of two to four people, a single module could hold roughly 200 to 400 people.

After asking the system, Fu Qing got an unexpected piece of good news.

This module could be placed on a level surface, or “under” the ground or a building. In other words, as long as it connected to the ground or a building’s first layer, it could be installed underground.

That freed up a huge amount of space at once.

The students’ strong performance really could increase the shelter’s capacity.

*

After the notice went out, the students were like they had been injected with chicken blood.

Those who still needed to make up their campus run headed straight to the track as soon as they had finished eating. Everyone else uniformly chose to return to their dorms to do homework.

And they had plenty of it. The two theory classes, Zombie Studies and Hoarding Studies, went without saying. Even the farming class had a large amount of theory to learn.

All of it was listed item by item in the wristband’s student backend, with reminders before each deadline.

Homework was typed up and submitted directly through the wristband, with strict anti-cheating measures and strict prevention of “secondhand marketplace ghostwriters.”

Of course, ghostwriters probably could not handle homework that bizarre anyway.

After Su Huaijin’s analysis won everyone over, wrapping up perfectly and collecting a bunch of admiring fans, she returned to the dorm glowing with satisfaction. She opened the wristband backend to check the Hoarding Studies assignment, and her confident smile froze on her face.

She stared at the homework prompt, and the top student’s gaze began to tremble.

【“Introduction to Hoarding Studies” Homework 8.26】

【Details: Before next class, please finish reading the full text of Virus Outbreak: With My Hoarding Space, I Tear Zombies Apart, Crush the Scumbag Ex Underfoot, and Ascend the Throne, and provide brief answers to the following questions.

1. In which chapter does the heroine meet her former top-tier coworker Shen Baigei and successfully take revenge with a face-slapping comeback?
2. Briefly describe the heroine’s action route during the key arc “From escaping Base Seven to returning in triumph with an army and taking the base.” (No more than 300 words.)
3. What is the ending of the third antagonist, Sun Baisong?

…

18. Based on class content, suppose you are about to set out on the road as a fugitive, with only one backpack for supplies. What would you choose to bring with you?】

Su Huaijin: “…”

For the first time in her life, Su Huaijin looked at a set of questions and felt a headache coming on.

She really wanted to grab Teacher Bai by the shoulders and ask: there are eighteen questions, so why do seventeen of them have nothing to do with hoarding?

Do you really love power-fantasy webnovels that much?!

When she opened the green reading app and found the book, her head spun even harder.

It was 860,000 words long!

Hoarding Studies met twice a week. Su Huaijin’s next class was scheduled for Thursday, which meant she had to finish more than 800,000 words and write up the assignment before Thursday afternoon.

For three years of high school, studying for exams, she had not read a single novel. While everyone else devoured romances and power fantasies, she had been grinding practice questions with her head down. Who would have thought that once she got to university, a teacher would force her to read webfiction, and then submit homework and a book report?

Su Huaijin’s vision went black. She could not see her future.

As the youngest in the dorm, still growing, and small-framed, Su Huaijin was doted on by the others. Just then her roommate Jian Yu pushed the door open. “Xiao Su, I got your water for you…”

Seeing Su Huaijin collapsed over her desk, Jian Yu panicked. “What’s wrong with you?”

Su Huaijin: “Nothing, I just suddenly want to withdraw…”

Jian Yu: “???”

Top student, wake up! I’m still counting on copying your homework!

*

That night, the dorm building at Fangzhou University was brightly lit.

It was only the first day of term, yet the campus study atmosphere was unprecedentedly intense. Countless students stayed up late reading… reading Virus Outbreak: With My Hoarding Space, I Tear Zombies Apart, Crush the Scumbag Ex Underfoot, and Ascend the Throne.

Once she truly got into it, Su Huaijin found, to her surprise, that this book was not merely a simple wish-fulfillment story.

The sections detailing how the heroine hoarded supplies were extraordinarily thorough. The research-obsessed author even listed a two-page-long set of references in the author’s notes. Paired with the concrete applications in the text, it was basically a vivid, entertaining hoarding textbook.

Who had not dreamed, “If only textbooks could be written as interestingly as novels”?

Teacher Bai’s class was that dream come true for every student.

As Su Huaijin read on, she gradually set aside her prejudice, her expression turning serious.

There were even a few passages where she paused to take notes.

And only then did she finally grasp the meaning of those seventeen homework questions.

By making the questions so devilishly specific, Bai Tang’s goal was clearly to force the students to read carefully. The answers were hidden between the lines. If you wanted precise answers and a high score, you had to immerse yourself and read closely.

In the process, the hoarding knowledge slipped into your brain, almost unconsciously, in a rather underhanded way.

As for the final question, it looked like a typical “imagination prompt” from elementary language class, yet it hid a trap.

Bai Tang had mentioned in class that a hiking backpack’s maximum load should be kept to one-quarter to one-third of your body weight, and if your fitness was poor, you needed to reduce it accordingly. So the correct approach to this question was to first calculate the ideal load based on your own weight, then list each item’s weight, and after weighing everything, choose an appropriate loadout ratio.

If you treated it as a simple “what survival basics would you bring” prompt and answered casually, you would definitely lose points for lack of carefulness.

Once she found the key to answering, Su Huaijin let out a breath and sank back into the story again.

And she had to admit, this author really had skills. The professional knowledge was accurate without feeling forced, and the story was genuinely satisfying to read.

In just one day, Su Huaijin went from “what is this, forget it, I’ll withdraw,” to “wait, this is kind of interesting.”

By the next night, when Jian Yu went to tell Su Huaijin to wash up, Su Huaijin had fully evolved into a mysterious form: wrapped in her blanket into a cocoon, lying there reading her phone while squirming around.

Jian Yu: “Xiao Su, go shower, the bathhouse is about to close.”

Su Huaijin: “Right away, right away, I’ll go after I watch the heroine kill Brother Bai. Holy shit! So cool!!”

She suddenly let out an excited howl and jumped up to perform an incomprehensible celebratory dance.

Staring at the lump of blanket wriggling nonstop on the bed, Jian Yu: “…”

That night, a new post quietly appeared on the forum.

[My top-student roommate is getting really weird. What do I do? Online waiting, urgent!]

₊˚.🎧📓✩